Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Quilt and Craft Fair special for NSW and ACT customers ...

Sadly, we won't get to the Sydney Quilt and Craft Fair due to flight uncertainty from the ash cloud.

As a thank you to all our NSW and ACT customers who hoped to purchase ak items or to see new creative products, we'd like to offer a 20% discount on all phone orders placed during the next 5 days - this includes gorgeous rare yarns alpaca yarns in natural colours as well as rug kits and more...its shaping up as a long cold winter.

Email us or check out the blog  to see images of our new felt dolls...both large and small... in their hand sewn outfits.

Dreaded ash cloud strikes again

The Quilt and Craft Fair starts tomorrow in Sydney and we should be setting up this afternoon but instaed I've been sitting on the phone to Qantas for the past hour and a half trying to cancel flights ... I started early this morning when flights out of Sydney sounded iffy ... I can't do the Fair unless Charles comes with me for the day to help unpack and set up and he has to get back tonight, without fail.  Qantas has now announced all flights after 3pm are cancelled so we won't get there at all...fantastic, all our goods are in Sydney, stand and services booked, customers early waiting - I hope.  There should be no debate about the cancelation but just in case there is a problem later I want to tick all the boxes...

Friday, June 17, 2011


flora doras at rest

The Flora Doras

Most families have pet words – the meaning of which is often fluid but clearly understood by all concerned.  In our family Flora Dora was one such term that has stayed with me – I have an early memory of being called Flora Dora by my grandmother, usually when dressing up or generally flouncing around thinking I looked pretty terrific. 
And for some reason, Flora Dora was the name that kept popping into my head as I created the crazy felted sprites – it just seemed to fit their personalities.  The sprites have now proved a hit in  workshops and as finished dolls and so I’ve decided to expand the concept into creative kits – the idea being to create your own personalised character starting with a hand felted dress and flowery head piece.  It followed naturally that the name of the collection should be The Flora Doras.
On checking, the original Flora Dora’s first appeared in an 1899 musical comedy set in a perfume factory on the island of Floradora.  The storyline has a sextet of Edwardian girls who sing and dance and play musical instrument...flora Dora became the 'it' girl of her time.  The musical was a success and toured the world coming to Melbourne where it became all the rage ...Flora Dora societies were formed by bright young girls dressed exuberantly in hats came together to sing the songs from the musical.   The first half of the 20TH century saw various   productions including an early talkie staring Marion Davies, R. Hearsts lover, as the Flora Dora girl.  Whilst the literal translation of the name refers to a type of costume I think it also described for certain mood...a light heartedness, a love of music and entertainment... a slightly wild and oh so modern slant on life characterised in the over the top Flora Dora hat with its flowers and embellishments.
I’m sure it was this mood that my grandmother was eluding to when she samg the song to me ...and I think the felted Flora Doras conjure up a similar feeling.
A note about kits: each kit will have everything you'll need ..and the method is simple and fun.  Check out Flora Dora at the Sydney Quilt and Craft Fair next week

Friday, June 10, 2011

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

new zealand stockist

Welcome to Nicola Bota and her team in New Zealand who are now stocking ak books...

Ashford Craft Shop & Knitcola Stitchery
427 West Street
Ashburton

Ph: +64 3 308 9085
Fax: +64 3 308 3159
Free-phone: 0800 274 3673
E-mail: craftshop@ashford.co.nz
Website: www.ashfordcraftshop.co.nz

Saturday, June 4, 2011

colour and texture...

Over the past week I've been knitting up scarves and cushions using Rare Yarns alpaca and its been a reminder of just how much I enjoy working with natural tones and textures.   ak is, of course, all about colour...albeit an unconventional palette of slightly dirty shades...it defines us.   

Subtle vegetable dyes and aged indigo renmants are so viserally beautiful they have the capacity to bring on a dull ache in the pit of my stomach..but equally I find handwoven domestic textiles in natural fibres utterly irresistible.  The appeal lies in part in the limitless array of subtle shades they work back so well together...but also in the variety of textures to found across natural fibres.  Traditionally created on narrow looms, this genre of textiles were once integral to a household...part of the nomadic familes wealth and a mark of a well run Victorian manor.  Valued for their utilariarian qualities as much as their good looks they were created with skill and care, rolled up and stored away to be turned into mattresses and bedding, floor coverings and curtains, tea towels, table wear and even clothing as the need arose.  

My stash of aged textiles has grown considerably since starting ak because I've been lucky enough to go hunting and gathering in some of the most interesting textile markets in the world.  Sadly I'm a true collector at heart and not a trader and so I never want to part with anything...and so the shelves and cupborads at ak are stacked with narrow bolts of gutsy handwoven Turkish cotton, slubbed silk once destined  for shirts, seed bags,  fine linen and cotton blends in subtle gradations of stone and donkey brown and cream ... 15m lengths of ultra fine woven mohair thats so heavy it feels wet to the touch...rough  open weave Anatolian wool that shrivels and scrunches up when washed...Turkish mattress ticking in red and blue stripes,  prone to run and therefore impractical but oh so lovely to look at ...hand woven self embroidered woollen bedcovers in natural creamy wool...vintage French cottons once used for laundry bags and tea towels...authentic and just lovely to own

But to return to my far more down to earth project at hand,...knitted cushions and throws.  I want to give a plug to Rare Yarns range of alpaca which is interesting to work with because it  offers a selection of yarn types, from classic DK and traditional boucle to brushed boucle and blended boucles, in the same colours which opens up all sorts of creative possibilities. Think Kelly Hoppen, the English interior designer whose signature look involves bringing together different textures in a palette of natural shades in ways that are both pleasing and far from neutral.